Archive for ‘FREEDIVING courses here every month!!’

The water temperature at Julian Rocks has been sitting at 24 degrees or more for the last month of two and with the warmer water our divers and snorkelers have been treated to some amazing Manta Ray and Leopard Shark encounters. We have so far had one of the best Manta Ray seasons to date…

Are you ready to take the next step in converting your diving passion into a diving profession.

During the Divemaster program you will receive a wealth of practical experience and knowledge in the dive industry. Through a finely tuned blend of academic sessions mixed with practical application you will achieve the status of Dive Master, the first step in turning your diving interest into a rewarding career! At this point your presentation and instruction skills will be honed, you will have individual and group assignments, and you will take the Dive Master examination at the end of the course.

Freedive 2013

Be part of the fastest growing sport on the planet!

Do you want to learn how to dive to 20m on a single breath, develop existing freediving skills or learn the art of freediving photography?

We are all set to go for new free diving courses for 2013. Places are filling up fast so come in and see us soon. Includes tuition, SSI Educational pack, pool entry fee, transport, three boat dives at Julian Rocks, mask, snorkel and long blade fin hire. Come on in and see the freediving professionals at our dive centre.

The water is great this time of year with heaps of pelajic fish visiting the rock aswell as the sound of the migrating Humpback Whales! So come in and try something new or develop your freediving to a new level.

Byron Bay Dive Center is excited to welcome Freediving and 1st Aid Instructor Joe Knight to our team.
Joe found freediving at the age of 11 during a trip to Fiji, his life has revolved around spearfishing and freediving ever since. Joe started competing in spearfishing competitions at the age of 13 and moved on to state, national and international events.
Since 2002 Joe has moved away from the competitive scene focusing on freediving instruction and photography. Joe has dived all around Australia living in Victoria, NSW and WA. Joe also has experience diving in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Christmas Island and New Zealand.
Joe’s professional diving career has been very colorful, joining the Navy in 2002 until 2008 as a clearance diver and later moving into medical science, naval medic and safety officer on dive support vessels and offshore survival trainer. Joe has spent the last two seasons in New Zealand working as a Sea Urchin Freediver, spending up to six hour breath hold diving per day.
Joe has practiced yoga since 2004 and heavily incorporates his yoga practice into his freediving training. Joe’s passion for freediving and philosophy is inspiring and as a teacher he loves sharing this passion with others re-enforcing the need to just have fun and be safe, “it’s not all about diving deep”.
Byron Bay Dive Center now runs regular freediving courses, see our freediving page for more details and dates.

Holiday season is here and Byron Bay Dive Centre is welcoming a new Australian Divemaster Academy! With three students starting the course, staff and instructors are preparing for another successful season of Divemasters.

Speaking of the season, summer is rolling in full force and BBDC is getting busy busy busy. Courses are still commencing Mondays, Thursdays and the first weekend of each month, and they are filling fast. Students have been really enjoying the diving out at Julian Rocks, interacting with loggerhead turtles and grey nurse sharks.

The busier it gets, the more volunteers we need. If you’ve got a Working Visa and an Open Water Ticket come join the Byron Bay Dive Centre volunteer scheme and reap all the benefits of becoming part of our crew. Call 02 66 858 333 or drop by the shop on Marvel St.

A few of our May- June volunteers have decided to continue their adventures and are leaving the Bay this weekend which means if you’ve got a Working Visa and an Open Water Ticket come join the Byron Bay Dive Centre volunteer scheme and reap all the benefits of becoming part of our crew. Call 02 66 858 333 or drop by the shop on Marvel St.

The 3rd Byron Underwater Festival was again a massive success. Despite tough economic times, participation numbers were up 40% from last years records with close to 80 people participating in this years photo and video shoot-out competition competing for close to $40,000 in prizes. To our knowledge this has now become the largest underwater shoot-out competition in the Australasia region.

The prizes won included cameras, underwater housings, dive gear and dive trips to Fiji and Indonesia. Biggest winners were Ballina resident Mark Gray who scored both overseas trips for the winning image in the SLR camera category as well as 2nd prize in the Underwater Portfolio. Yamba resident Chis Hamilton won 1st prize in the portfolio category and a dive gear package worth more than $5000. In the video caetegory Kieren Curry from the Gold Coast won some highly valued video lights with his excellent narrated video entry. Compact category winner Dave Bryant from Melbourne won a digital SLR housing to move his photography to the next level.

Two local school groups went out with sponsor cameras to take underwater photos for the first time and had whole school projects devoted to this.

The Marine Visions III open medium art competition held as part of the Underwater Festival in conjunction with Retrospect Galleries saw many excellent entries including sculptures, photographs and some amazing fine art. Droves of people attended the launch event on Friday and it was pushing room only to get close to the works.

Winner of the fine art prize was Steven Giese with his work “Spell for the Protection against Sharks”. Some works can still be seen at Retrospect Galleries this week.

Part of this year’s Byron Underwater Festival was also the world premiere screening of the 2nd instalment of David Hannan’s best-selling film ‘Coral Sea Dreaming’ – fully shot in High Definition. The night was a sell-out and the personal introduction to the film by world renowned underwater cinematographer David Hannan himself made the screening a huge success. The film will be released on DVD and BlueRay later this year.

Other highlights of the festival were the underwater photography clinics by Mathieu Meur, who flew in for this festival all the way from Singapore. His clinics were sold out quickly and participants were putting their new learned skills to test immediately. Mathieu who authored 3 books on digital underwater photography also gave a free public lecture at the Byron Bay Community Centre during the week.

Guest of honour for last 3 years, Australia’s own underwater pioneer Neville Coleman was back this year to give public lectures and to coduct an ‘Underwater Naturalist’ course, which was a great success. Neville is the author of over 60 books and well known for his passion for the underwater world and the small and unusual critters it contains. Listening to him talk about his many decades of exploration is an inspiration and for those who managed to meet him during the festival will realise what an amazing person he is.

The Underwater Festival is an annual event and not just for divers. Aimed at everyone wanting to experience our marine environment for themselves it encourages all to participate – whether you want to learn more about it, dive it, snorkel it, kayak it … or even paint it. Only one year to go to the next one …

The water temperature at Julian Rocks has been sitting at 24 degrees or more for the last month of two and with the warmer water our divers and snorkelers have been treated to some amazing Manta Ray and Leopard Shark encounters. We have so far had one of the best Manta Ray seasons to date…